


Some Things Do Need Saying

by Miss_Deyora_Ash



Category: Led Zeppelin
Genre: Communication, Communication about a lack of communication?, Established Relationship, Lack of Communication, M/M, True Love, somewhere in the 70s
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:28:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29888034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Deyora_Ash/pseuds/Miss_Deyora_Ash
Summary: “Are you in love with me?” Robert asks. The question comes at such an unguarded moment that Jimmy almost answers yes.
Relationships: Jimmy Page/Robert Plant
Comments: 6
Kudos: 16





	Some Things Do Need Saying

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ledbythreads](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ledbythreads/gifts).



> For the amazing Leds, since I didn't have motivation to write for ages and their recent story (and their reply to my comment) finally sparked some ideas in me.

Jimmy is lying with his head on the crook of Robert’s arm, one leg slung across his hips. Robert’s jeans feel pleasantly rough against his bare thigh, and he smells like clean sheets and Jimmy’s shampoo. Jimmy feels small and safe, and that should make him much more uncomfortable than it does. He traces patterns over Robert’s bare chest, occasionally straying to rub a nipple just to hear his sighs at that. They fucked earlier, in the shower, and Jimmy thinks they’ll go for round two later tonight. For now he’s content just lying there.

They don’t have moments like this very often anymore. It’s always city to city, show to show, day after day after day. Only ever time for quick blowjobs in the dressing room and stolen kisses in the wings. He loves touring, but-

Robert sighs again, happily, a dreamy smile on his lips as he looks down at Jimmy.

Outside the hotel room the sun is going down. The blinds do a bad job at keeping the last rays out, and beneath him Robert is bathed in the golden glow. “Beautiful,” he murmurs as he tangles his fingers in the blonde hairs on Robert’s chest. He’s grown up so much since they first met.

Robert hums, runs his fingers through Jimmy’s locks. Still damp, because blow-drying his hair would take much too long when he could instead be here. “Are you in love with me?”

The question comes at such an unguarded moment that Jimmy almost mindlessly answers yes. Just manages to catch the words before they escape his mouth, instead looking up at his lover. Robert looks innocent, and glorious, and like he has no idea how complicated a question that is. Like it’s a perfectly normal question to just ask.

“It’s too nice a moment to talk, don’t you think?” he says lightly, hoping Robert will let it go.

He doesn’t, of course. Blue eyes boring into Jimmy. “It’s not really a question that requires a long conversation.”

Jimmy feels panic trying to claw its way up from his chest. Fights the urge to walk away in a huff and hide somewhere until Robert is done asking inane questions that don’t have a right answer and they can go back to being _them_ , undefined as it is. Of course that’s impossible now anyway. For a moment he feels a hot flash of anger at Robert for asking in the first place.

Robert is looking at him warily, and as soon as he notices that the frustration disappears. Ask anything, Jimmy had once told him. Never be satisfied with what you’re given.

“I care for you,” he says tentatively.

Robert scoffs. “I know that, that’s not what I asked.” He purses his lips, gently pushes Jimmy away, and sits up. Wraps his arms around his folded knees. “It’s alright if the answer’s no, okay? I just think I have a right to know.”

Truth is, Jimmy doesn’t know why this is so hard to say. He knows he cares about Robert, loves him even, that he has never felt about anyone quite the way he feels about him. If he is in love with Robert, then he must never have been in love before, because he’s never felt like this. And what would that mean for his other relationships? Christ, he does not want to think about this right now. It was such a nice evening.

Maybe he just doesn’t want to lie to him. Maybe he just doesn’t want anything to change. Maybe he wants this, forever, something that’s always there and never real.

If you say things out loud they become real, everyone knows that.

He searches for something to say, a way to stop this moment. Pushes himself up to sit on his knees before Robert, untangles his hair with his fingers to steal some extra time. “You’ve never said it either.” He scratches his neck. It’s not strictly a lie. Robert says he loves him all the time, when they’re with others. He’s said it in interviews even. ‘I love Jimmy, we’re very close, we’re such great friends, I love him so much,’ and so on and on and on. Not when they’re alone though. “Not like this.”

“Well, I do,” Robert says, tone clipped. He’s acting offended and like he doesn’t really care either way but his eyes are sad. Jimmy doesn’t know how to fix it, how to salvage this night from being completely ruined.

He reaches out and strokes Robert’s cheek with the back of his hand. Robert leans into it. “You already know the answer.”

“I’m starting to doubt it,” Robert says. He sniffs again, and Jimmy realises he’s started crying. He buries his face into his knees, shoulders shaking. Jimmy really messed this up. He should just get over himself and say something.

He sighs and leans in to kiss the top of Robert’s head. “I don’t mean to be difficult. This isn’t easy for me. I don’t want things to change.”

“Why would things change?” Robert’s voice is muffled but at least he’s still talking to Jimmy. “Things aren’t less true just because they go unsaid.” Jimmy thinks of all the ways that isn’t true. Thinks of how much easier it is to pretend someone cannot hurt you when they don’t know you care. Thinks of how simple it is to let things happen as long as you don’t talk about how it should be.

“Some things don’t need saying,” he tells Robert, but he already knows it’s not enough. Maybe if he had said that in the first place, but not anymore. Robert is still crying and Jimmy wants him to stop. He shouldn’t care. The whole world already tells him they love him, why should Jimmy have to say it? Why does it matter so much?

Why does it feel like something is squeezing his chest with every single one of Robert’s sobs?

He moves to sit next to him and carefully wraps an arm around his shoulders. Robert immediately buries his face in Jimmy’s shoulder instead, like some sort of reflex. “It’s alright,” Jimmy shushes him almost automatically. “Look, I wish you hadn’t asked me to say it. I care for you. Do I have to say more? I’m not- I don’t- I really wish you hadn’t asked me.” He feels gross, feels like he’s lying, and for the first time he can remember he actually cares that he is.

Robert doesn’t stop crying. Jimmy really wishes he would, that he would laugh at Jimmy’s incompetence and kiss him to shut him up. “Robert, please, say something. What is wrong?” he asks, feeling frantic and annoyed and too flustered.

“I ruined everything,” Robert eventually sobs. “I shouldn’t have brought it up, I just thought- maybe if I asked you would just say it, I shouldn’t have, I-“

“It’s okay,” Jimmy says, thankful it’s not his fault anymore. “Let’s just forget about it? We have an entire night and morning left, it’s fine.”

Robert nods against his shoulder but doesn’t move away yet, so Jimmy unfolds his legs from beneath him and lies down against the headboard. Until they’re lying almost exactly like they were before this mess started, only with positions reversed. The light filtering through the blinds is pale and silver instead of gold.

Yet something still seems too fragile and fractured between them right now. “You know you’re my favourite, right?”

Robert sniffs. “I better be.”

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like this is missing something, I'm not completely satisfied... But I really wanted to finally post it and I don't know what should be changed.
> 
> This pandemic is tiring me out. All of us, I think. Oh well, slowly but surely time is passing and it has to be over at some point in the future.


End file.
